Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Best of 2017 (Part One)

It is my firm belief that the Oscar nominations are Christmas Morning and the Oscars themselves New Year's, so now that the Oscars have happened, it is officially time to put 2017 to bed, regardless of what I have or haven't seen. And to be honest, I've seen pretty much all of the 2017 releases that interested me. So what you see here represents my totally biased take on last year in film. It was an interesting year for me - while I didn't love nearly as many films as I did in 2016, I really liked a lot more. In other words, there wasn't a lot of competition for my #1 film of the year, but there was a TON of competition for my Top Ten. Of the 63 films I saw, there are some truly special films that find themselves ranked in the 40s, which means it must have been a very good year for film.

Let's take a look at some Oscar correlative categories, shall we?

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

It

I, Tonya

The Lure

The Shape of Water (WINNER)

Those mermaids in The Lure are quite the beguiling creatures, even before they glam up with '80s makeup, and the patrons of the club where they perform are styled to be perfectly sleazy. Everyone on the I, Tonya hair and makeup team must have had a blast if we're judging by their exuberantly big '90s styles. The team on It deserve all the credit in the world for re-imagining Pennywise so effectively, and their work on the kids is subtly perfect. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 is even more out-there than the first one, and the hair and makeup team responded in kind, perfecting the look of existing characters and flawlessly executing the new ones (particularly Mantis). Nothing beats the outstanding creature work on The Shape of Water, though, and the work on the human characters is just as strong - look at how Sally and Octavia's hairstyles tell you everything you need to know about their characters. And not to mention Michael Shannon's steadily blackening finger.

Best Costume Design

Atomic Blonde

I, Tonya

Personal Shopper

Phantom Thread (WINNER)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Most of the I, Tonya costumes are recreations, but they're pretty faithful, and the rest of the fashions take us through both the best AND worst of the '80s and '90s. Personal Shopper's casual duds are as to die for as the high fashion ensembles. Atomic Blonde is just the coolest of cool, and each character is iconic and clearly defined. All the credit in the world to the team on The Last Jedi, for creating looks that feel very much of a piece with the world we know and love, while still being new and out-of-this-world fabulous. But nothing this year came close to the jaw-droppingly swoon-worthy clothes of Phantom Thread.

Best Visual Effects

Dunkirk

Ghost in the Shell (WINNER)

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2

The Shape of Water

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Practical effects continue to be Christopher Nolan's calling card, and they continue to pay dividends in Dunkirk. Those otherworldly underwater scenes in Shape of Water are good enough to make me want a sequel. Valerian is such a singular vision, and the jaw-dropping effects show every bit of money that was poured into them. No visual effects this year had more personality than those of Guardians of the Galaxy - and I'm not just talking about Baby Groot. It's an utter shame about Ghost in the Shell, because those astounding visual effects deserved a much better movie. Would that more sci-fi films embraced color this much and had this much imagination.

Best Production Design

Atomic Blonde

Blade Runner 2049 (WINNER)

Ghost in the Shell

mother!

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Ghost in the Shell may have sucked, but it looked FANTASTIC, with eye-poppingly gorgeous production design. The title city of Valerian is a wonder, and a beast to design, encompassing as it does millions of creatures from thousands of planets with their own environment and style. It's so good you wish we had more time to explore it further. The house in mother! is basically one of the main characters, and it's a damn impressive set - I would totally want to live there, if it weren't for all the crazies. Atomic Blonde, the most stylish film of the year, gives us both the gritty, run-down Berlin and the neo-disco, neon-futurist Berlin, and both look amazing. Nothing beats the staggering set pieces of Blade Runner 2049, though, which are located in so many different environments it's dizzying, each one a tiny masterpiece.

Best Sound

The Lure

mother! (WINNER)
Personal Shopper

The Shape of Water

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Personal Shopper may seem like an odd choice in this category, but if you've seen it, you know how impactful its use of sound is, especially in the last scene. On top of the superb mixing in the musical numbers, The Lure does a great job of finding a unique sound for the mermaids themselves... something The Shape of Water does just as well for its amphibious "asset". The Last Jedi has the typical sounds we expect in a Star Wars film, and also includes the year's single best (and apparently, most controversial) sound cue. But mother! is unrivaled as a sensory experience in 2017, and the sound mix was the key part of that, putting us right in the middle of the world's most out-of-control house party/revival/bad acid trip/orgy and making sure there was no escaping it.

Best Original Score

A Ghost Story

Dunkirk

Phantom Thread

The Lure

The Shape of Water (WINNER)

A Ghost Story's beautiful, ethereal score is key to selling its grand ideas and succeeds in spades. Jonny Greenwood's work on Phantom Thread is intricate and near-constant, and wholly awe-inspiring. Hans Zimmer gave us the peak of the modern droning action score with his score for Dunkirk. The Lure's songs are fantastic, and the underscoring is great at selling the atmosphere, too. Nothing this year captured me so immediately as Alexandre Desplat's lilting score for The Shape of Water - it puts you on the film's wavelength instantly, completely wrapping you up in its embrace, ready to meet (and fall in love with) these characters.

Best Original Song

"Remember Me" from Coco

"Rewrite the Stars" from The Greatest Showman

"This Is Me" from The Greatest Showman

"Tuff Love (Finale)" from Patti Cake$

"Visions of Gideon" from Call Me By Your Name (WINNER)

The Greatest Showman tunes may be generic pop fluff, but they WORK, especially in the context of the film (I won't deny that I got choked up during "This is Me"). Those melodies are undeniable. Likewise, "Tuff Love (Finale)" is pretty much what you'd expect from the "female 8 Mile" plot of Patti Cake$, but it has personality to burn and a killer hook courtesy of Bridget Everett, and it plays like gangbusters in the film. The versatility of "Remember Me" is a direct effect of its deceptive simplicity; each time you hear it, the meaning is different, and it works each time. "Visions of Gideon" is a haunting reminiscence of a past relationship, tear-enducing enough on its own. But paired with that heartbreaking shot of Timothée Chalamet at the end of Call Me By Your Name, it carries the weight of the world on its shoulders, plenty ably.

Best Editing

Atomic Blonde

Baby Driver (WINNER)

BPM

Lady Macbeth

Personal Shopper

The text messaging scenes of Personal Shopper are the best thriller sequences of the year, and the editing plays a huge part in that. There is no fat on Lady Macbeth, easily the leanest meanest movie of the year - every cut is purposeful and precise, and you feel every single one. On the opposite side of the spectrum, BPM has a sprawling ensemble taking on a political issue of huge import, and the editing allows us to spend time with everyone. We feel a part of the group by the end, which is key to the film working as well as it does. Great editing is also knowing when NOT to cut, and BOY HOWDY does Atomic Blonde understand that. Those action sequences are astounding. But Baby Driver takes things to a whole 'nother level, timing every cut to the music in a way that puts every single music video ever made to shame.

Best Cinematography

Atomic Blonde

Blade Runner 2049 (WINNER)

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

The Lost City of Z

Look, I may not be Darkest Hour's biggest fan, but Bruno Delbonnel gives the film what interest it has with some beautifully striking expressionistic shots. I'm still not over the final shot of The Lost City of Z, which is somehow even more magnificent than the incredible final shot of James Gray's last film, The Immigrant. Dunkirk makes better use of the IMAX 70mm format than any other film to date, making every inch of that giant screen count. Atomic Blonde's famed tracking shots are jaw-dropping, but every single fight scene has its own specific look and feel, and even the quieter scenes have striking, exciting lighting to draw us in. Every single frame of Blade Runner 2049 could be hung on a wall as art. Roger Deakins threw everything he had at this, and the result is the biggest visual feast we've seen in cinemas in quite some time.

Great to see all the love for Atomic Blonde, even without a win here. It really is a marvelous achievement. Ditto for Dunkirk. I still haven't seen Mother! yet, so I can't say if it's use of sound was better but Dunkirk's use of sound was as effective on me as any film I have ever watched, if not more.

About Me

Performer since birth, tap dancer since the age of 10. Life-long book-lover. Film obsessive. Frustrated artist since college graduation. Non-profit database specialist by day, tap teacher by night, Netflix binge-watcher by weekend.